Sebastian Vettel won the Italian Grand Prix for third time in his career after starting the race from pole position. However this win wasn't as easy as his win in Spa a fortnight ago. The German had problems from the word go as Mark Webber, surprisingly got a brilliant start from the other side of the front row and tried to get past his teammate. But the latter soon came under the pressure from two Ferraris at the first chicane and one of them - Felipe Massa - did get past Webber, as Vettel safely retained the lead.

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Vettel then extended his lead over 1 second before DRS activation and in the end won his 32nd race by a margin of five seconds. That margin was almost double tens laps before the end of the race until Vettel was informed to shortshift due to an ongoing gearbox issue.

Mark Webber, encountered the same problem in his sister Red Bull that prevented him from getting past Fernando Alonso despite being within a second of the Spaniard for almost 20 laps. Webber, who lost second place to Massa at the start, lost another place to Fernando Alonso at turn 3 during the opening laps. However, the race started to come his way after his first pit stop where he leapfrogged Massa by pitting earlier. He further gained ground over Alonso who pitted six laps after Vettel in order to be faster at the end of the race. That tactic didn't work and instead he was forced to battle with Webber for much of the race.

Behind the trio, Felipe Massa finished the race in fourth place. The Brazilian made a brilliant start and moved into second but was forced to obey team orders and allow Alonso to get past. He then lost the final spot on the podium by pitting a lap earlier than Mark Webber.

Nico Hulkenberg continued his strong showing in the race - the talented German made most of Sauber's race pace to finish in fifth place and add 10 points to his tally. That's more points than he and Sauber managed to score in the first 11 races of the season.

However, the case wasn't so for Daniel Ricciardo whose Toro Rosso just didn't had the race pace of his rivals. In the end he finished the race in seventh place behind the lead Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. Romain Grosjean finished the race in eight place and was a sole point scorer for Lotus.

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Lewis Hamilton finished in 9th place after an electrifying afternoon at Monza. The British driver started the race on hard tyres, thinking it was a better of the two tyres. But during the opening laps of the race with heavy fuel, it didn't turn out that way and Hamilton went only backwards before a slow puncture almost eliminated his chances of scoring some points. But he revived those chances with two quick stints on medium tyres with the final one lasting for just 15 laps. On the very final lap, he ran wide in a bid to overtake Romain Grosjean. In the end he finished in 9th place and the resulting 81 points gap to Vettel realistically eradicates his chances of grabbing a second world title.

Jenson Button took the final point for McLaren ahead of Kimi Raikkonen whose outing was similar to that of Lewis Hamilton. He started the race on hard tyres hoping to a long first stint and then attacking at the end on faster medium tyres. But his plans were abandoned after he ran in the back of Sergio Perez on the run down to turn 1 on the very first lap. He then spent the rest of the afternoon trying to regain those lost positions. In the end he finished the race in a disappointing 11th place.

Sergio Perez finished in 12th place ahead of Esteban Gutierrez in the sister McLaren. Pastor Maldonado led a Williams duo in 14th and 15th ahead of Adrian Sutil who retired on the very last lap due to an unknown issue. He was still classified in 16th having completed 90% of the race.

The result moves Sebastian Vettel 53 points clear of Fernando Alonso in the drivers championship as he inches closer to a fourth consecutive title. Lewis Hamilton is a further 28 points behind in the Mercedes while Webber closed down the gap to Raikkonen to just four points in their fight for fourth place in the championship.

In the constructors standings, Red Bull march ahead with 352 points ahead of Ferrari who in turn are now 3 points behind Mercedes.

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